Cat Sitter on a Hot Tin Roof by Blaize Clement

by Nancy Miller
(Red Banks WI)

Siesta Key is the setting for Blaize Clement’s Dixie Hemingway series. Dixie was “retired” from the police department after her cop husband and their three year old daughter were killed by an errant car in a parking lot. She is now a pet sitter for a variety of furry clients and their assortment of humans in and around Siesta Key.

She lives on the Gulf off Midnight Pass Road in a house her grandfather bought from the Sears catalogue in the 30’s, before the property values were what they are today. She has an apartment on the second floor, and her firefighter brother Mike and his undercover detective partner Paco, and their cat Ella Fitzgerald, occupy the rest of the house.

This case involves a newcomer to the island, a beautiful woman with a feline named Leo. Dixie befriends her briefly and discovers Laura Halston has run away from her abusive Dallas surgeon husband. Things quickly take on another dimension altogether when Laura is murdered in her home and various characters from her past begin to show up.

Dixie discovers Laura was not who she claimed to be and had been followed by some unsavory characters, including her sister. She soon becomes their target also.

This is a good summer read, and Clement’s descriptions of Florida life and sunsets, including the famous Green Flash, are truly enjoyable. It’s fun to find a new author and character, and I look forward to reading more about Dixie.